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Andrea Pavan (-15) wins the 31st BMW International Open on
the second play-off hole after an extremely exciting final day. - Pavan: “It is unbelievable. This win feels a bit surreal”.
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Kaymer (-10, T16) misses out on second victory at Germany’s
iconic tournament, despite strong performance. - 61,000 visitors enjoy eventful tournament week
- Gaganjeet Bhullar (IND) wins BMW M8 Hole-in-One Award.
Munich. Andrea Pavan (-15, 273 shots) is the winner of the
31st BMW International Open. The Italian showed the
strongest nerves on an extremely hard-fought final day at GC München
Eichenried and eventually clinched the title at Germany’s most
iconic golf tournament in the eighth play-off in the tournament’s
history. He birdied the second play-off hole to defeat England’s
Matthew Fitzpatrick, who had to settle for second place. Martin
Kaymer, who led at the halfway point of the tournament, finished
tied in 16th place and missed out on his second victory
at the BMW International Open, having previously won his home event
in 2008.
This was only Pavan’s second victory on the European Tour, and he was
rewarded for his effort with a cheque for 333,330 Euro. The number 133
in the world had previously triumphed at the Czech Masters in 2018.
The 30-year-old is the first Italian winner of the BMW International
Open. His final round of six under par on Sunday was the second best
of the day, with only Thorbjørn Olesen (DEN) and Bernd Wiesberger
(AUT, both -7) carding better. After he and Fitzpatrick shared the
first play-off hole with pars, Pavan made the breakthrough at the
second attempt, courtesy of an outstanding approach shot and a
regulation putt for birdie.
“It is unbelievable. This win feels a bit surreal,” said a beaming
Pavan. “I played together with Filippo Bergamaschi today – a friend
from Italy. That definitely helped. It is so tough to win a
tournament. I feel blessed to be stood here with the trophy. My caddy,
Cristian Alejandro Molina, is a great guy. This victory belongs to him
at least as much as it does to me.”
The BMW International Open was still wide open until well into the
final round. A glance at the leaderboard shows just how hard-fought
the Sunday was: No fewer than seven players – defending champion Matt
Wallace (ENG), Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP), Edoardo Molinari (ITA),
Jordan Smith (ENG), Matthias Schwab (AUT), Alvaro Quiros (ESP) and
Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA) – finished tied for third place on 13
under par.
Kaymer, the first and still the only German to win the BMW
International Open, had been sitting pretty at the top of the
leaderboard on Friday, following rounds of 67 and 66. However, his
putter went cold at the weekend, and the two-time major winner could
do no better than one over par on the final two days. Despite this,
the 34-year-old was still in a positive frame of mind: “The killer for
me this weekend were holes six and eleven. I was four over par for
those two holes. Given the drives I hit, I could easily have been four
under par – and have won the tournament. However, I will focus on the
positives: I had a really superb week in many regards, and played 68
holes very well.”
As well as Kaymer, Germans Max Kieffer (-5, T37), Dominic Foos, Max
Schmitt (both -1, T53) and Marcel Schneider (even par, T60) also made
the cut.
In the second round, India’s Gaganjeet Bhullar hit a hole-in-one on
the 17th (par 3, 179 metres) to win a BMW M8 Competition
Coupé (combined fuel consumption: 10.7 – 10.8 l/100 km; combined CO2
emissions: 243 – 246 g/km) worth 193,880 Eur